28.

Dear me, you are 28.
Strangely, you feel quite at ease saying this number now.
26, 27 were hard. You had to spit it out each time you were asked your age.
28 on the other hand feels alright, you now say a week after your birthday.

Sometimes, you feel like it was only just yesterday when you and your friends were all fresh out of college, feeling like you had all the time in the world on your hands to burn. You guys felt young and invincible.
Some days, you feel that it was not that long ago too that you set foot in all these different places,so taken by the lights, stars & moon, the grandeur of the mountains and all the fascinating sights the places revealed to you.

The last few years saw personal mountains  you had to climb, learning to let go of things you should & things you didn’t want to, accidentally pushing things away when you didn’t mean to, recovering some with time, losing some for good.
On the bright side you walk away with lessons, knowing now to try give your best to the ones you have recovered, current and new ones that matter.
It takes up so much more energy now compared to the early 20s you discover, but much needed.

It was also a journey of facing your insecurities and weakness heads on, learning to better it, mostly learning to block out your own head noise and being ok with it.

You learn once you are on the other side, you can look back and smile at how little or much you have grown, at least you have.
You learn these personal mountains are so much harder to climb than the physical ones too.
And you can only pray that you will never forget the lessons learned for every mountain scaled.

So with 2 more years to the glorious 30, you tell yourself you really want to make it count.
The early 20s had been amazing, checking so many things off your bucket list.
You want to start anchoring so you pivot in the right direction, on what scale you still do not know.

You foresee many personal mountains  you still have to climb, many amazing travels you want to embark on in the next 2 years. All necessary so when you stand at 30, you can look back at how adventure packed your 20s has been, how well spent it was, and know your 30s will likewise be a fantastic one.

So, whatever cards you are holding, please play the hell out of it, wisely of course.

A friend sent me this message not too long ago

” Welcome the challenges, know that it makes you wiser and stronger
Worry not of what others think of you, that is truly none of your business
Do your best at work, be done with it and then enjoy your evening
Know that you are loved, you beautiful soul!”

We all are. Stay gold.